Josh's DjangoCon US 2024 Experience

By Josh O'Brien

This was the second year I was attending both DjangoCon US and visiting Durham, NC as last year’s event was also hosted there. Due to this, I had a sense of comfort knowing I was familiar with my surroundings and this also pre-empted the Foxley boys start discussing our plans and familiar bars we would look to attend during our time in Durham, weeks before the event.

Again, we were attending as a Gold Sponsor for the conference and this meant we would have a stand and be able to give out swag during the event. Off the back of the success of my lightning talk from DjangoCon Europe, I had been requested by a couple of people to give the same talk again in the US. Without hesitation I said that I would, how my confidence changed moments leading up to the talk.

Friday 20th September - Travel Day

A lovely early morning start to capitalise on the time difference heading out to the US (5 hours behind), I set off early to pick up Liam before heading to Jon’s to complete the journey to the airport. Our flight was set to take off around 9:30am and land in Durham at 12:30pm US Time (a direct flight which a lot of people were surprised about). Before flying, we had time to pop into the lounge for a lovely cooked breakfast and then board the plane.

The flight was pleasant enough and I managed to watch Bad Boys: Ride or Die (Will Smith & Martin Lawrence) and a Tom Brady docuseries about his Patriots career - recommend both. We landed, got through US customs and collected our bags.

An Uber ride later we made it to our Airbnb: For any future attendees this is a great way to stay near the event and at a reasonable cost. Our 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom bungalow cost just under £1000 all costs included. Another interesting point was that we stayed in the same place that SixFeetUp used the year before. A quick game of “the highest number of dominos turned over” won the master room with the en-suite. An easy win thank you very much! (I think the boys let me win after sticking me on the sofa in 2023).

After stocking up on some morning essentials, we headed off to play some TopGolf at Durham’s new golfing spot. If you are looking for a local fun space for a team-building exercise, I highly recommend TopGolf. There are so many different games to play and you do not need to be a golf expert to enjoy (just ask Liam), plus they have a selection of drinks, food and shuffleboard on site too.

After a mixed performance at the golf, we headed to the bar to make friends with some locals and compete at shuffleboard. I am that stereotypical Brit who likes to compete in any game with a drink as a punishment for the loser. Unfortunately, the British lost on this occasion and I headed to the bar to drink some delicious tequila. YAY!

Goodbye’s said we headed to our favorite bar in the US: 106 Main. Last year we made friends with the bar staff and this became our home from home (in pub terms). After a few more drinks and some memories made, I decided it would be a smart idea to make my way home on one of the local electric scooters. What should have been a simple 0.7 mile walk, turned out to be a 3.2 mile and 57-minute journey home - accompanied by a rather big accident which left me in a pickle with a bad shoulder and some cuts and bruises - Jon walked in at the same time by simply walking home.

Saturday 21st - Day to enjoy Durham
Heroes come in the form of a man named Liam Royden! This fine specimen ordered and grabbed us breakfast as we all walked out into the living room to discuss our plans for the day. Some questionable breakfast egg & sausage biscuits later (doesn’t compare to our Sausage & Egg McMuffin) we started watching our respective teams.

Both Liam & Jon watching Reading, whilst I watched the first half of the Liverpool game in my room. Before the second half kicked off, I went to the local Irish pub which had now opened and was showing the game, so my destination was confirmed; off I went to Bull McCabes. It was great being the only British guy sitting at the bar because it certainly helped me to get "merry" after a comfortable 3-0 win and plenty of locals buying me beer which apparently you can’t refuse!

Jon came to save the day and after showing me what I believed was magic at the time (tilted a beer sideways without holding it), we then headed off to Pickleback, his choice of bar after we were advised this was the best place for buffalo wings. (To see our recommendation for the best wings, check out Jon’s DjangoCon review).

After asking Jon & Liam about the Boxing event in the UK a couple too many times, I headed back home for a much-needed nap. 7 hours later, Liam walked in with Jon and was ready to take me out for an early birthday drink at our fav - 106 Main. Only a couple of chilled drinks took place before heading home to celebrate the big day on Sunday.

Sunday 22nd - My Birthday

If you were at the event or met me in Durham and weren’t aware it was my birthday, I’d be surprised. Apparently I had told most of Durham on the Saturday! I woke up early to a lovely call from my Wife and children, to find out they had surprised me by hiding birthday cards in my clothes.

After opening and being overwhelmed by the generous and patient (if you waited in the queues) present in a pair of Oasis Tickets, I got ready to head out. I was up early and the day before I was recommended to go to Duke Chapel - I normally attend Church service in the UK when I am not coaching football and wanted to see a local Church.

I used my trusted friend - the scooter - and went to find it. Truly stunning, I was fortunate enough to be inside whilst the choir were preparing for service and it felt like I had an exclusive listening party. After I made it back, I went to meet a friend from last year’s conference at the Irish Pub I was in the day before, Andy Mshar, to watch his football team (Soccer for Americans) Arsenal.

Before I go on, if you are a football fan or even better - Arsenal fan - then I urge you to watch the game at Bull McCabes, it’s an Arsenal Supporters bar with songs, chants and a great atmosphere. During the match, some of the familiar faces I remembered from the day before or me telling people it was my birthday today, was going to haunt me. The first few tequilas came to me. After a great game for the neutral and a 2-2 result (favours my team Liverpool) we left to head to the American Tobacco Sports Cafe.

A short walk later, Andrew and I reached the Sports Cafe. We managed to find a table outside in front of the TV with my Houston Texans on (NFL), this is the team I adopted strategically last year from the NFL after falling in love with American Football and Duke being my College team. GO DUKE! The view from the table was brilliant, overlooking the Baseball field and the sun was out.

We were joined by Will Vincent after his round of Golf with Jon (who joined shortly after) and Liam. We then had some great conversation about Liverpool (bantering with the Arsenal fan), family life and we enjoyed a couple of chilled drinks as well as a birthday surprise for me from Will... another tequila.

Liam and I moved onward to celebrate my birthday with a couple of the locals we’ve made friends with over at 106 Main. Sarah (the bar's manager) had a day off and joined us for a few drinks which very quickly escalated and followed by more tequilas. This finished me off and my night-in-shinning armour, Liam walked me home to put me down for an early night before the conference.

Monday 23rd - 1st day of the Conference

The first day of DjangoCon US 2024. What a brilliant start, tough day with a sore head but completely self-inflicted so I put my big boy pants on and got on with it. A day with attendees full of excitement, enthusiasm and willingness to talk, there really is nothing like the buzz around the conference center on the first day of the conference.

Being responsible for the UK market I was balancing UK calls, clients and people in the application process for live roles. This meant that I missed some of the morning being away from the stand, however, when I managed to speak with developers, I was told the keynote by Sheena O’Connell was brilliant. As well as a number of talks throughout the day, but one was mentioned a couple of times; Chris May - Choosing Wisely: SPA vs. HTMX for Your Next Web Project. After signing off the first day with the conference picture, we head back to the Airbnb to get ready to head out.

Jon headed straight out for a "ruby murray" or curry in cockney-rhyming slang, which after some internal peer pressure, he decided to join Thibaud and Vince for a “fire in the hole” spicy dish. Liam and I tried the food next door to the Airbnb, Durham Beer Garden which was really tasty and a lot of food for your money.

After tempting Liam to try out the electric city scooters to get home earlier after the conference which he enjoyed, we decided we’d go for a tour around Durham and find our way to the College campus to see the Duke Football stadium again. Alongside watching some mixed football, “soccer” matches taking place and speaking with some local students about the attractions to try out, we decided to head back to our local pub for a nightcap and then call it an early night.

Tuesday 24th - Conference Day 2

After a good early night, I felt energised and ready to have as many positive conversations and help as many people as I could. Throughout a busy day at the conference stand, handing out swag to those who wanted it and speaking with local (and traveling) Djangonauts about their search requirements and what they were looking for, the day quickly flew by.

I have to mention an article that I read following a discussion and a Lightning Talk which I would recommend reading from Daniele Procida the article goes into detail about Daniele’s 12 rules for your job search. You can read our blog posts on that here too.

In the afternoon a fitness friend whom I have been following on Strava since the last DjangoCon US, invited me out on a bike ride on a beautiful and scenic route along the old American Tobacco railway route. This good friend Drew Winstel had brought two of his personal road bikes with him to DjangoCon and had offered me one to use for this ride, a lovely gesture. Along with providing me with some local knowledge and history about the route, what he also gave me I didn’t appreciate. Drew left me for dust!

I would like to think I am the everyday fitness person and fairly healthy. However, I quickly realised after we set off from the hotel that I was in for one tough “leisurely” ride. Drew is a keen rider and has incredible leg strength, he was so quick and physically fit, when I caught up with him along the trail (sweating and exhausted) he looked at me with not a bead of sweat on his head and asked if I was okay.

We continued for a short while longer before the next plot to his wonderful plan fell into place (or my heavy legs being the problem). I managed to break the pedal off from its crank arm (bit that connects the pedal to the bike). After us trying to fix the issue by making our way to a local shop, we headed back. No further than 100 meters later, mr heavy foot here managed to snap it off again. I felt terrible. Drew rode back solo to grab his car and pick me up on route to escort me back to safety whilst I plodded back until we met again. The route was beautiful and if you ever attend Durham I would advise you to take that trail.

That evening Jon, Liam and I started our night with some darts at Durham Beer Garden which was very good. A comfortable 3-0 win for me sent me on my way for a good night (I'm normally the worst out of the 3 of us). We spoke to a number of people throughout the day and informed people they would be more than welcome to join us at Boxcar Arcade a personal favourite from last year which throughout the night, lots of people did.

After a couple of games around the arcade, we stumbled on a couple of favorites and played some competitive matches with forfeits for the loser. Skee Ball, Air Hockey, Pinball and the one which I managed to rope everyone into, NFL 2 Minute Drill. This was a quarterback simulator game where you throw American Footballs into point scoring targets. The wider the target the lower the points scored, the narrower the target, the higher the points scored. The aim of my competitive game was don’t be the lowest point scorer or you guessed it, forfeit.

We had so much fun doing this and I think everyone enjoyed it, chanting and cheering each other on! Really demonstrating the Djangonaut spirit throughout. In Europe we created Django Roulette, I think in US it has to be Django Ball.

Wednesday 25th - Final Day

A usual start to our day of conference life by now; up early, shower, teeth, get dressed and then make our way to the conference. Get in, have a delicious breakfast. I want to mention the food again this year was amazing, you get to choose from multiple options for both breakfast and lunch, with snack food and tea & coffee throughout the day then start the morning.

However, today was a tad different, both Jon and I were going to be giving Lightning Talks in a number of hours. I felt somewhat confident, I had to make a few changes to the slides I had already prepared and worked on the time presenting, then I was ready. I did feel for Jon who tried to create a whole Lightning Talk and presentation in the few hours he had to be ready.

His talk was a brilliant one and something you should watch back when you have the time - 'Coffee Break Career Hacks" he offers some brilliant tips to help people stay connected with their network all year round and not just when you need LinkedIn to find a job.

My talk went well, slightly rushed but I got it in the time and around the odd stumbling of words, I was happy. We have added the video to our YouTube channel you can watch it here. After a great response to my talk, I sat down with some developers who wanted to discuss and look over their resumes. The day was nearing an end and we managed to give out the remaining swag we had travelled with and then started to pack up the rest of the stand.

We then proceeded to say our goodbyes to the ones whom we wouldn’t see again and made our way out of the conference for possibly the last time. For our final evening, we wanted to spend our time with as many people as we could and sprinkle some UK Foxley Talent pizazz on everyone’s night. So we told people we’d be at Durham Beer Garden and to come and join us to throw some darts (you know, that typical British pub sport). A group of people came along and had a great night.

I met someone who I had been attending but we hadn’t spoken to before, who informed me about the start-up he was working at that has revolutionised technology to help stroke victims. I love hearing about the technology that helps the world when speaking to developers.

We were in for a treat for our last visit to 106 Main... earlier in the week we met a local called Trish, who explained she was a good cook and that she made some dishes that I hadn’t heard of. We were delighted that on our final night, she had cooked up a Taco Soup which was delicious and kept me silent (an achievement in itself) for all of 5 minutes whilst I wolfed it down.

Some of our Durham darts players joined us and the night continued for a couple more hours. Jon then decided to call it an early night as he was off to play golf in the morning again with Will. I called it a night after a few more drinks at High Dive Bar after our favorite US pub was closing for the night.

Thursday 26th - Home Time

This was it, home time. I loved my time in Durham but I couldn’t wait to get home and see my wife & kids. I woke up feeling good and got on with repaying Liam the breakfast favor he had given me earlier in the week. After making some eggs, bacon and sausages we both tidied the AirBnb up and packed away our stuff ready to leave for the airport.

Prior to making our way back for the flight, we took an Uber to Dicks Sporting Goods and other local sweet/candy shops to purchase some gifts for our families. Jon also met us here after his round of golf which he left for before we’d woken up. I was thrilled to be able to buy some football boots for my daughter - in pink - which she has wanted and we’d struggled to buy in the UK.

The flight home was on time and without any trouble in the air, after we had all feared the worst with the recent news about the devastating Hurricane Helene due in. My thoughts and prayers are with anyone who has been affected by this. After watching Mad Max - Furiosa (a 4/5), a couple of Modern Family episodes and not managing to get any sleep, we landed in the UK and only had our journey home to complete. I switched off and DjangoCon US 2024, was over.

Overview

I will keep this short as I have gone into a lot of detail about my overall conference experience. This year I had a great time at DjangoCon, as always, we sponsor and attend these conferences not looking for a financial return but to support our community and give back to attendees. I can safely say through speaking to people, spending time outside the conference and our Lightning Talks, I think we have achieved this.

I’ve made stronger friendships with people I met last year, new friendships with people I met this year and hopefully more from anyone who reaches out that maybe reads this or watches my talk.

Thank you to everyone who attended the conference and made my time so enjoyable. I’d like to thank the whole of the organising team for putting on an amazing event and for all of your hard work. Like my Europe review, I’ll sign off by saying. DjangoCon US 2024 - completed it, mate!

DjangoCon US 2025 - I will see you next year! Wherever you may be...

Josh.